Chapters (64)
- Other titles by Anne McCaffreyPublished by Ballantine Books:
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- INTRODUCTION
- PROLOGUE
- At a Gather—6.15.30
- Part 1
- Turnover at Landing—1.1.31 Present Pass Aivas—Aivas Adjusted Turn 2553
- Benden Weyr—1.1.31
- Southern Hold—1.1.31
- Healer Hall—1.1.31
- Back at Landing—1.2.31
- Fort Hold—late night—1.1.31
- Fort Hold Runner Station—1.2.31
- Keroon Printer Hall—1.3.31
- Benden Weyr—midday—1.3.31
- Monaco Bay Weyr—five days later—1.8.31
- Part 2
- Ruatha Hold—local time 12:04 in the morning—1.9.31
- Telgar Weyr—local time 4:04 in the morning—1.9.31
- Benden Weyr—local time 6:04 in the morning—1.9.31
- Harper Hall—local time 1:00 in the morning—1.9.31
- Landing—local time 10:12 mid-morning—1.9.31
- In the Conference Room at Landing—1.9.31
- Monaco Weyr—10:22 in the morning—Timing it
- In the Conference Room at Landing—local time 1:10–1.9.31
- Sunrise Cliff Seahold—timed-back
- In the Conference Room—local time 2:12 at Landing—1.9.31
- Back at Landing—local time—3:40
- Harper Hall—5:00 in the morning, and Southern Hold—2:00 in the morning–1.9.31
- Landing—late afternoon—1.9.31
- Same time at Keroon Printer Hall—local time 11:15—1.9.31
- Later, on an unusually bright evening at Landing, Sunrise Cliff, and Honshu Hold—1.9.31
- Part 3
- Honshu—1.10.31
- Circle Runner Station—1.18.31
- Harper Hall
- Benden Weyr—
- Benini Hold—east Monaco and Honshu—1.20.31
- Harper Hall—1.28.31
- Honshu Hold—2.1.31
- Fort Hold—2.13.31
- Printer Hall at Wide Bay—same night
- Honshu Hold—2.9.31
- Night at Wide Bay—2.9.31
- Ruatha Hold—late evening—2.9.31
- Core Hold—two days before Council Meeting—2.26.31
- Part 4
- Honshu Weyrhold—2.26–27.31
- Council Meeting at Telgar Hold—3.1.31
- Honshu Weyrhold—3.01.31
- Interim at Benden and elsewhere
- Honshu Weyrhold—time passing slowly
- Landing—3.21.31
- Honshu Weyrhold—3.21.31
- Southern Hold—3.23.31
- Honshu Weyrhold—3.27.31
- Benden Weyr—3.27.31
- Cove Hold—same day, same approximate time
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She gave Tai’s hand a reassuring clasp, her expression approving. “You’re very quick, Green Rider Tai. Muscle was torn from F’lessan’s left leg and not all the new skills that the Healer Hall has developed can replace that.” She paused. “He’ll have a few scars on his face but I do believe that once the wounds have healed they won’t be so noticeable.”
“F’lessan is not a vain man,” Tai said, after a moment’s consideration, “but he will hate a limp.”
“You are quite right. How do your legs feel?”
Tai had to think because she felt awfully heavy below her knees.
“There should be little feeling,” Manora added quickly. “I have only just finished dressing them with numbweed. You’ll have scars.”
Tai dismissed that with a snort. “How badly was Zaranth hurt and when may I see her?”
Manora gave her a slow look. “As I’m sure Zaranth has told you, she is better: not so stiff today. She was clawed and bitten, not as extensively as Golanth or in any way crippling to her. She is slathered with numbweed the moment she so much as twitches. She has been fed a plump and tender herdbeast, which Gadareth chose and brought for her. She is able to move and to fly if she should wish to.”
Tai closed her eyes, all too keenly aware of how much worse the bronze’s injuries must be. The predators had savaged him. She could see him struggling, Zaranth trying to defend them both. Oddly Tai felt no resentment that her dragon’s primary concern had been for her weyrmate. Golanth had, after all, taken the brunt of the attack.
“G-G-Golanth?”
Manora’s expression altered for a brief instant and then she smiled with gentle reassurance.
“He, too, is improving, but it will take much longer for him to heal. His injuries were—dreadful.”
“They all went for him …” Tai’s voice broke.
“The predators attacked both dragons. Zaranth has many claw marks on her; they are just not as deep as those on Golanth. Do you know—” and here Manora hesitated, “how she defended herself and Golanth?”
Vividly Tai remembered Zaranth staring intensely at something in the underbrush. She thought of deflected trundlebugs, such minor nuisances. She thought of the pelts that Zaranth had somehow retrieved. That night, she hadn’t moved anything to prove to F’lessan that she could—until he threw the bowl at her. Nothing could have been more threatening than the felines! Neither dragon had hesitated in pushing them away. But Zaranth had had more practice with that technique while Golanth had had ever so many more to deal with. Until the other dragons came to help. She remembered now, too, something that Aivas had said in her hearing, when she was working in Admin. “The white one leads the way but why is it that they do not use telekinesis if they can telepath and teleport?”